Hefner Says Bunnies `Passe`

June 26, 1986

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner says he should have closed the three corporate- owned Playboy Clubs 10 years ago because ``they became passe. They became a kind of albatross that made it difficult to push Playboy magazine into the 1980s.`` The Playboy Clubs in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles will close Monday, leaving only three U.S. franchised clubs and four clubs in the Philippines as reminders of the once-racy hot spots. Closing them ``at last freed us from the attempt to make something old-fashioned seem like a contemporary symbol,`` Hefner said.